Milk, Nature's Most Perfect Food???
Or so the TV ads say. A great source of calcium,
or say the TV ads say. Is milk really all the good things we have
been told over the last 40 years or more? And even if it was then,
is the milk sold in the stores the product it used to be?
The answer is no to both of those questions. Cow's
milk is not the more perfect food and no, the milk you get in the
stores today is nothing like we could get years ago. Today, the
cow's milk you get in the store to make your kids healthy is a
genetically modified product and a possible source of illness.
Oh, no here he goes again attacking a staple food
product. How can I be making these claims? Well, what I am about to
tell you are not claims. I am going to explain how dangerous the
milk you are feeding your children really is.
Before I go into the studies, let me ask you a
question. What on earth would make any of us think that drinking the
milk of another species is a healthy thing to do? Mother cows
produce milk to feed baby cows. Baby cows, called calves on the
farm, drink this very special product and gain lots of weight very
quickly. And baby cows grow large until they can eat regular cow
food. And when they can eat normal cow food they stop drinking milk.
Adult cows do not drink cow's milk. In fact no other species drink
the milk of its own species after they wean. And no other species
drink the milk of another species especially as an adult. Except
humans.
Ok, I know your mother feed you milk and you still
drink it today and it hasn't killed you yet. Well the milk you are
buying in the store is not what you think it is. According to the
New York Times in an article entitled Fighting on a Battlefield
the Size of a Milk Label , dated March 9,
2008, more than 1/3 of the cow herds in the US produce milk
contaminated with rBGH or rBST. (1)
What do those letters represent? It is an
artificial hormone sold by Monsanto under the name of Posilac given
to cows to stimulate milk production. Cows that are given this
hormone produce an extra gallon of milk a day. BGH means Bovine
Growth Hormone. BGH in a cow's blood stimulates another hormone
referred to as Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1. (2)
IGF-1 is directly responsible for increasing milk production in
cows. Sometimes it is referred to as Bovine Somatotropin (rBST). Oh
and the '"r" means synthetic. It is a genetically modified synthetic
hormone produced in Monsanto's laboratories.
Increasing levels of this hormone boosts milk
production, causing a number of problems with the milk, among them,
raising levels of pus, antibiotics residues and a
cancer-accelerating hormone called IGF-1. (2)
Michael Hansen, Ph.D., a senior scientist with
Consumers Union, said this about rBGH:
“Consumers may have a number of reasons
why they want to know whether milk comes from cows that were treated
with rbGH. Some consumers may be concerned with the various animal
health problems (increases in mastitis [visibly abnormal milk],
various reproductive problems, laminitis, injection site reaction,
etc.) caused by the drug and may not want the cow to suffer
needlessly. Indeed, Canada and the European Union turned down rbGH
for approval on the grounds that it was not safe for animals.
Others may be concerned about the unanswered human health questions,
which primarily revolve around potential for increased milk levels
of antibiotic residues and of insulin like growth factor 1, which
has been linked to numerous cancers.
Yet others may want to support small, family farm operations.
According to 2007 US Department of Agriculture figures, some 9.1% of
small farms—those with less than 100 cows—use POSILAC, while some
42.7% of the large farms—those with more than 500 cows—use it. Thus,
rbGH is used more than 4.5 times more frequently by large farmers
than small farmers.”(3)
Samuel Epstein, MD, a scientist at the University of
Illinois School of Public Health who is one of the top expert's on
cancer prevention, authored one of the best books on the topic,
Got (Genetically Engineered) Milk?
"This milk is qualitatively and quantitatively different from
natural milk," states Dr. Epstein. "In addition to the issue of
increased IGF-1 levels, these differences include:
| Contamination of milk by the GM
hormone rBGH |
| Contamination by pus and
antibiotics resulting from the high incidence of mastitis in rBGH
injected cows |
| Contamination with illegal
antibiotics and drugs used to treat mastitis and other rBGH-induced
disease |
| Increased concentration of the
thyroid hormone enzyme thyroxin-5'-monodeiodinase |
| Increased concentration of long
chain and decreased concentration of short chain fatty acids
|
| A reduction in levels of the milk
protein casein" |
So should you be concerned about any of those
things? Yes, you should be real concerned about all of them.
Pus
The Posilac label explicitly states: "Cows
injected with POSILAC are at an increased risk for clinical mastitis
(visibly abnormal milk). The number of cows affected with
clinical mastitis and the number of cases per cow may increase....
In some herds, use of POSILAC has been associated with increases in
somatic cell counts [pus & bacteria]."
Antibiotics in Milk
Cows with mastitis are treated with antibiotics. Milk cows given
antibiotics increase the antibiotics
residue which is present in milk fed to consumers. Supporters
of rBGH insist that milk is one of the most heavily regulated
foods with regards to antibiotics. The claim is antibiotic
residues in the milk couldn’t possibly reach the consumer
because each tanker of milk is tested. If antibiotic residue is
found the milk would have to be
thrown out. Every time a milk truck makes a pickup, the milk is
tested. A farmer guilty of contaminated milk would be
charged for an entire tanker, therefore it would not be
economical for a farmer to sell such milk. (2)Only 4 out of 82 commercially used antibiotics are
commonly tested for. So few of
the antibiotics are tested for, other antibiotics that are not legal
for use with cows end up in the milk supply. The Wall Street Journal (Dec. 1989) did
a study of the antibiotic residues in milk on the market and
found that 20% of the milk had illegal antibiotics
present. This number was confirmed in a May 1992 Consumers
Reports study while the Center for Science in the Public
Interest found 38% of the milk to be adulterated with illegal
antibiotics.(2) Current tests are designed only to detect
antibiotics in the Penicillin family.
The economic incentives, rather than preventing antibiotics
from reaching the consumer, seem to encourage farmers to use
antibiotics which they know won’t be tested for.
Cancer
According to Monsanto studies rBGH
use raises IGF-1 levels significantly (about five times as much).
IGF-1 is a naturally-occurring hormone found in the milk of
both cows and humans. It affects cell growth and is responsible
for the quick growth of infants in both species. This is why it
is biologically present in mother's milk, it is meant to
be consumed by infants. While the IGF-1 hormone already exists
in humans, it is usually bound to a protein and has less of
an effect than unbound IGF-1 in cow's milk.
When cow's milk is consumed by human non-infants, it behaves
as a cancer-accelerator. IGF-1 is not destroyed in the
pasteurization process or during human digestion. It is
biologically active in humans, and is
associated with
breast, prostate, and colon cancers.
IGF-1 promotes cell division. As cells divide, at some point
they are instructed (by their genes, in combination with hormone
signals) to stop dividing or they are instructed to die so that
the creation of new cells is matched by the death of cells and
no net growth occurs; this is called "programmed cell death." If
"programmed cell death" is prevented, then cells don't die at
the right time, causing out-of-control growth of cells, which is
another way of saying cancer. Cancer is uncontrolled cell
division. (2)
What does rBGH do to the cows?
You read above that the cows tend to get mastitis.
It also shortens the life of the milk cow. Remember the cows are
kept in a persistent state of being pregnant in order to give milk.
Injecting the cows with rBGH will shorten the cow's life expectancy
to about 2 .5 years. Normally a cow can live about 25 years.
Should you drink milk?
If you insist on drinking milk, it is pretty
obvious you should avoid ALL milk that comes from cows injected with
Posilac or whatever they want to call it. At this time, milk that
does not contain rBGH says so on the package. Monsanto has
successfully got the FDA to say there is no difference between rBGH
milk and normal milk. And the FDA does not require milk contaminated
with rBGH does not have to be labeled as such. Consumer pressure is
resulting in companies, even Walmart, to remove rBGH milk from its
shelves. Read the labels.
Canada and Europe have banned importation or us of
rBGH in all food products. Sheep and goat’s milk cheeses are safe,
since rBGH is used only with dairy cows. Imported European cheeses
made from milk are also safe since rBGH is banned in Europe.
I join many others and feel humans can not digest
milk products. Worse, milk coats other foods you eat if you drink it
during your meals inhibiting digestion of the entire meal. Many
people are saying if you are going to drink milk find raw,
non-pasteurized milk. At least that milk contains helpful bacteria
to aid you in the digestion of it. Pasteurized milk has all the
bacteria killed in it.
Oh, by the way, Monsanto is doing all it can to
force the removal of non-rBGH labels from milk. Monsanto and its
surrogates are trying to force the FDA to ban non-rBGH labels on
milk and milk products.
The American Farmers for the Advancement and
Conservation of Technology, or Afact, calls itself a “grass-roots
organization” that came together to defend their right to use the
artificial growth hormone recombinant bovine somatotropin, also
known as rBST or rBGH, in their milk production. (3) Afact has a
direct connection to Monsanto and a consultant out of Colorado.
Monsanto is an evil company. That company does not
care at all about the healthiness of their products. Their only
concern are profits, to hell with the consumers. Monsanto is a
leader in genetically modified plants and animals. There is no good
sense reason to be introducing such products and creatures into our
environment. It is a dangerous experiment that no one knows what the
long (or short) term results will be. (Read the
pages found here on GMO food products.) Boycott all products
that Monsanto has anything to do with.
Footnotes:
Links:
|
“Recombinant Bovine Growth
Hormone, rBGH or rBST vs. Organic Dairy,”
Organic Consumers Association,
www.organicconsumers.org/rbghlink.html
|
| “The rBGH Scandals,” Organic Consumers
Association, www.organicconsumers.org/text4.html |
| “rBGH,” Center for Food Safety,
www.centerforfoodsafety.org/rbgh2.cfm |
| “Bovine Somatotropin (BST),” IFST:
Current Hot Topics, January 2004 www.ifst.org/hottop8b.htm
|
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